My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius.... ROBIN HOOD!

By Matt Holmes / June 25, 2011

USA Today have released the first image of Russell Crowe from the set of Robin Hood, his fifth colloberation with director Ridley Scott and the first since Gladiator nine years ago that brings the duo back into the realm of the summer adventure blockbuster. If you've been reading OWF for a while, you're already aware that I think Crowe is about five years past playing this kind of role and Scott missed a trick by not casting him as the older and bitter villain, The Sheriff of Nottingham. Having said that, Crowe has clearly slimed down and the short hair cut does knock a few years off him. That haircut and beard combination worked for Gladiator, I'm certain that's what Scott is harpening back to here. Producer Brian Grazer agrees...

"He doesn't have the old Robin Hood tights," says producer Brian Grazer. "He's got armor. He's very medieval. He looks, if anything, more like he did in Gladiator than anything we're used to seeing with Robin Hood."

What surprises me most about the image is the lack of green and how dry the landscape looks. The reason we aren't seeing Robin Hood in cinema's this year is because the movie was delayed from shooting because Scott didn't think the grass was green enough in the British autumn to shoot the movie. Scott has gathered a great cast for this, I really hope he pushes the boundary of epic and that he has something new to bring to a mythology that has been well told out so far.